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The late 17-year-old great ape has shown up in tongue-in-cheek petitions to rename the hometown Cincinnati Bengals, to add his face to Mount Rushmore or the Lincoln Memorial, and to put him on the US dollar bill. He has grown the angel wings and halo of a deity in social media memorials. He has even been mock-nominated for president. The Harambe phenomenon is fed by genuine sadness over his death, continued controversy over the circumstances that led to it and the penchant of many social media users for satire — which sometimes turns offensive. “There is a word we like to use in our discipline, in pop culture studies, and that is ‘polysemic’: has many meanings,” said Jeremy Wallach, a professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “Harambe definitely is that, a sign that possesses many different interpretations.”
Harambe remembrances began soberly, with a legitimate “Justice for Harambe” petition seeking to hold the boy’s mother responsible in his May 28 death. The Hamilton county prosecutor ruled there was no cause for charges. The zoo reopened its gorilla exhibit with a higher, reinforced barrier and urged support for gorilla conservation efforts. However, the zoo’s hopes of moving on have been countered by all the continued reminders. “We are not amused by the memes, petitions and signs about Harambe,” Cincinnati Zoo director Thane Maynard said by e-mail. “Our zoo family is still healing and the constant mention of Harambe makes moving forward more difficult for us. We are honoring Harambe by redoubling our gorilla conservation efforts and encouraging others to join us.”
Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, is pictured in an undated handout photo provided by Cincinnati Zoo.
Esther Clinton, who also specializes in popular culture at Bowling Green, said the Kong-like proportions of the craze reflect lingering questions. “There are a lot of people who really do feel bad about what happened to him,” she said. “There’s a sense of here’s this poor guy, just in his cage imprisoned by humans, minding his own business; a kid climbs into his cage and he gets shot. It brings up all sorts of questions: about the zoo model, about the rights of non-human primates, about parenting.” The Harambe phenomenon turned ugly in June, when images were posted on a Facebook page likening Adam Goodes, a retired Australian soccer player, to the ape. They were pulled down and the page apologized. Twitter got caught in a similar controversy after racial posts about Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, who is black, included a Harambe comparison. The social media site recently announced two new settings aimed at curbing harassment.
Social media users like to satirize controversies. “Never Forget #Harambe,” read posts accompanying Harambe’s photo superimposed on sculptures, above cityscapes, among famous dead people such as Muhammad Ali or John F. Kennedy. Some Twitter users routinely add the hashtag #RIPHarambe even to posts that have nothing to do with him. He has surfaced in rewritten song lyrics, comedians’ acts, at sports events and in rap songs. On Change.org, a recent search turned up 253 references to Harambe. They include the early “Justice for Harambe” petition and the recent petition to rename the Cincinnati Bengals the Harambes, which has received more than 21,000 signatures. Other petitions want a Harambe emoji, a Harambe character in Pokemon Go, to clone Harambe, even to canonize him.
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